1 Month. Done.

We’ve successfully eaten a different meal every day for a month! We’ve had a couple of ah-crap-what-are-we-going-to-eat days where we’ve pulled something together at the last possible minute but those days were bound to happen I guess and we’re back on track and starting to feel like this is all just part of our routine. Anyway we’re pretty proud of ourselves!

So this week was Home Sweet/Cold Home and back down to earth with a bump with the rather fresh UK weather.

My flight back from LA landed at around 4pm UK time and I was not really up for cooking anything. Mark was on his way to an evening’s cycling at the Olympic velodrome so we didn’t have long to say hello and grab a quick dinner before I headed home and Mark rushed off to the other side of London. Mark and I love this little Japanese fast food place just outside Wimbledon station. I would normally go for their katsu curry but it still feels too early to use up a favourite so instead we chose the sweet chilli chicken with rice. It’s a dish that we’ve had before and it’s really tasty with a good amount of flavour and quite a garlic hit too. Perfect for a quick dinner.

25/01/2015: Haggis with Neeps and Tatties – own recipe

With the 25th being Burn’s Night we just had to make the traditional dinner! Haggis is so easy – you just heat it up and serve. We made our neeps and tatties with swede, but apparently you’re meant to use turnip… Well whatever it tasted great! I followed the suggestion of a colleague to add a little twist and stirred some whiskey into cranberry sauce to serve alongside. I’m not a whiskey fan but it tasted seriously good and makes me wonder why we don’t spike our cranberry sauce more often! Will be doing something similar at Christmas maybe with brandy…

We had some cod left over from Mark’s fish tacos so we decided to try out a recipe I found online. The idea was great but I found the spices to be a bit too dry. I used cumin seeds rather than ground cumin (the recipe didn’t say which to use) which didn’t work so well as I kept coming across these strong pops of cumin flavour that weren’t the best. I think next time I’ll use ground cumin and maybe less of the spices.

This is a great idea although I wasn’t able to pick the slices up pizza style like the recipe suggests but it was sooo tasty. It was really simple to make and you can use whatever toppings you have available. I had some crushed dried chillies left over from another recipe that I added to the tomato sauce which gave it a nice heat too – I can recommend doing that.

So tonight Mark and I couldn’t really be bothered to cook – we hadn’t planned anything ahead and both had long days at work. We decided to order a take-away but tried to choose something that we hadn’t ordered before. Kafta meshwieh are lamb skewers with parsley and onion served on a flatbread with hot sauce. We also ordered a couple of small dishes too – grilled kallaj (halloumi in pitta bread) and fatayer spinach (pastry with spinach, onion & pine nuts).

Loooooove Marie’s Cafe on Lower Marsh near Waterloo Station! We ate here before heading to the nearby Old Vic Theatre to see Daniel Kitson’s ‘Tree’, with himself and Tim Key, which was just absolutely hilarious. After the show I bumped into Richard Ayoade too which took me by surprise! Anyhow back to the food – this little unassuming eatery doesn’t try to be anything fancy and doesn’t look like much from the outside but the food is seriously good. We ordered our favourite chicken and cashew nuts with coconut rice after a starter of their delicious chicken satay. They do take-out too which is fab! This place is small and can get really busy especially after work but it’s worth the wait if you can’t get a seat straight away.

On the menu tonight was a simple soup from Sainsbury’s which was yummy, warming, everything you need on a Friday night when letting your hair down and starting to think about recovery after a week’s work. I also bought some of these part baked rolls that you pop in the oven to finish off – they are beautiful and make the house smell of freshly baked bread.